Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flat panel display device formed in a pentile structure and having a pixel portion and lighting tester. The lighting tester applies test voltages or aging voltages to the pixel portion.
Description of the Related Art
Since flat panel display devices are lightweight and thin, they are used as alternatives to cathode-ray tube display devices. Examples of flat panel display devices include liquid crystal display (LCD) devices and organic light emitting diode (OLED) display devices.
The OLED display devices generate excitons by recombination of electrons and holes, which are injected through a cathode and an anode, respectively, in an organic thin film, and emit light having a predetermined wavelength due to energy released from the excitons. The OLED display devices have high brightness and a wide viewing angle, and can be embodied in an ultra slim structure because they do not need a backlight.
A flat panel display device includes red, green and blue pixels to display full color. When the red, green and blue pixels are arranged in stripes, a boundary portion between pixels is visible as though the pixels were surrounded with a black matrix. Thus, image data of the flat panel display device has to be rendered.
Generally, rendering gives a realistic, three-dimensional appearance to an object by tone variation and shading in consideration of external information such as light sources, perspective and color. That is, rendering is an image-processing technique used to display a two- or three-dimensional graphic image. To render its image data, the flat panel display device has to have a plurality of pixels arranged in a pentile structure, which includes a first pixel column, a second pixel column, and a third pixel column. In the first pixel column, first pixels for displaying a first color and second pixels for displaying a second color are alternately arranged in a direction parallel to a plurality of data lines. In the second pixel column, the first pixels and the second pixels are arranged in reverse order of the first pixel column in the direction parallel to the plurality of data lines. In the third pixel column, third pixels for displaying a third color are arranged in the direction parallel to the plurality of data lines.
However, in the flat panel display device having a pentile structure described above, since the first and second pixels are always alternately arranged in one scan line due to the first pixel column in which the first and second pixels are alternately arranged in a direction parallel to the plurality of data lines and the second pixel column in which the first and second pixels are arranged in reverse order of the first pixel column in the direction parallel to the plurality of data lines, a first test voltage for testing lighting of the first pixel or a first aging voltage for aging the first pixel, and a second test voltage for testing lighting of the second pixel and a second aging voltage for aging the second pixel are alternately applied to one data line during the lighting test or the aging process. Thus, a brightness difference may be generated between pixels during the lighting test, and pixels might be excessively or insufficiently aged.
To solve these problems, it is necessary to either employ additional equipment for testing or aging each pixel, or modify conventional equipment for testing and aging a flat panel display device having a striped structure. Thus, additional costs are incurred for the lighting test and aging process of the flat panel display device having a pentile structure.